Searching for the Meaning of Football - At the Birthplace of the fuckin' Hamburger

Episode 8 of Nick Thomson's podcast Around the World in 90 Minutes takes him to Hamburg in northern Germany, birthplace of the hamburger, launch-pad of The Beatles and home to Hamburg SV, one of Germany's largest and most successful football clubs and a previous winner of the European Cup. But that was then. Today, Hamburg SV is not even the top club in Hamburg, having been usurped by a bolshie upstart from one of the city's poorer districts.

From modest beginnings, FC St Pauli has garnered a cult following that spreads way beyond the city's boundaries with its reputation as the world's most foremost left wing football club. The club's present day popularity was borne out of the squats and alternative music scene of Hamburg's seedy port area. FC St Pauli gradually became the cool club to support in the city whilst their once illustrious neighbour "stepped on a lot of rakes" in a gradual decline that eventually saw them relegated from the top division in 2018 for the first time in their history. If it wasn't bad enough having to play their football in the same (second tier) division as their scruffy neighbour (Hamburg fans call St Pauli fans "the fleas"), St Pauli's promotion to the top division in 2024 must have been particularly hard for them to take. But for the fleas, this was the equivalent of social justice, both reward for and justification of their liberal credentials.

Sven Brux - not reminiscing about the 1980's

Sven Brux is Head of matchday organisation and fan affairs at FC St Pauli. He's been a fan since the 1980's, not that he remembers too much about those early days because I was so fuckin' drunk in the 80’s. When asked what the club means to him? It's my fuckin' life! 

But what does the skull and crossbones have to do with FC St Pauli?

What was backpack-gate?

And why do Germans swear so fuckin' much?

For answers to these and other questions, tune in to Around the World in 90 Minutes via the links below.

Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/around-the-world-in-90-minuets/id1772650811

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5HZALrt0Crw6bHfLE0hzVw